Material Cycles
Material Cycles
Approx. 30 x 45cm
Approx. 35 x 45cm
Approx. 20 x 40cm
Approx. 20 x 35cm
Photography of cyanotypes, approx. 20 x 35cm
My cyanotype practice is rooted in an investigation of time, process, and transformation across multiple scales. Working with light-sensitive chemicals, I construct cyclical systems that move between control and unpredictability by preparing, exposing, freezing, and allowing materials to shift beyond my direct authorship.
The work draws on ecological and geological ideas of cyclical time, from daily solar rhythms to seasonal change and the vast, incomprehensible scale of deep time. These overlapping systems are not illustrated directly, but instead embedded within the process itself, where repetition, variation, and material instability become central.
Influenced by concepts such as Deep Time and Becoming, the works resist fixed outcomes, existing instead in a state of continual change. Freezing and melting, exposure and erosion, allow the material to act as both image and event, recording time while also being subject to it.
Rather than producing stable objects, the practice embraces contingency, where each piece emerges through interaction between environment, material, and duration. In this way, the work operates as both a record and a process, situating human action within broader ecological and cosmic cycles.
Graphic Score for the cyclical process of creating the work
**All spheres of frozen recycled cyanotype chemicals are approximately 6 x 8cm
Melting in progress, inside, material approx. 55 x 25cm
Frozen recycled cyanotype chemicals, inside
Close up of melted recycled chemical residue before washing, outside
Shadows of melting recycled chemicals, outside, material approx. 35 x 20cm
Close up of melting in progress, outside
Approx. 29 x 28cm
Approx. 29 x 28cm
Approx. 35 x 25cm
Before melting, outside
Close up of the shadow and ice sphere, outside
Outside melting, cropped image original material size approx. 120cm x 100
Inside melting, material approx. 50 x 35cm
Frozen unexposed cyanotype chemicals melting and exposing onto wet material, outside, spheres of chemicals approx 6 x 8cm, material approx. 35 x 20cm
Frozen unexposed cyanotype chemicals melting and exposing onto wet material, outside, unexposed chemicals approx. 15 x 20cm, material approx. 40 x 30cm
Close up details of the patterns from unexposed cyanotype chemicals melting, outside